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Azure Firewall Tutorial

Introduction

Azure Firewall is a managed, cloud-based network security service that protects your Azure Virtual Network resources. It is a fully stateful firewall as a service with built-in high availability and unrestricted cloud scalability. Azure Firewall provides both East-West and North-South traffic inspection.

Key Features

Azure Firewall offers several significant features:

  • High availability and cloud scalability
  • Fully stateful firewall
  • Built-in threat intelligence
  • Application and network rules
  • Integrated with Azure Monitor for logging and analytics

Creating an Azure Firewall

To create an Azure Firewall, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the Azure portal.
  2. In the search bar, type "Firewall" and select "Firewalls" from the list of services.
  3. Click on "Add" to create a new firewall.
  4. Fill in the necessary details such as subscription, resource group, and region.
  5. Create a new virtual network or select an existing one.
  6. Configure the public IP settings for the firewall.
  7. Review and create the firewall.

Configuring Rules

After creating the firewall, you need to configure rules to control traffic. Azure Firewall supports both application rules and network rules.

Application Rules

Application rules allow you to define fully qualified domain names (FQDNs) that can be accessed from your network.

Example: Allowing access to www.microsoft.com

{ "name": "AllowWeb", "priority": 100, "action": "allow", "rules": [ { "name": "AllowMicrosoft", "protocols": [ { "protocolType": "Http", "port": 80 }, { "protocolType": "Https", "port": 443 } ], "sourceAddresses": ["*"], "targetFqdns": ["www.microsoft.com"], "sourceIpGroups": [], "destinationIpGroups": [] } ] }

Network Rules

Network rules allow you to control traffic based on IP addresses, port, and protocol.

Example: Allowing traffic from any source to a specific IP on port 22 (SSH)

{ "name": "AllowSSH", "priority": 200, "rules": [ { "name": "AllowSSHInbound", "protocol": "TCP", "sourceAddresses": ["*"], "destinationAddresses": ["10.0.0.4"], "destinationPorts": ["22"] } ] }

Monitoring and Logging

Azure Firewall integrates with Azure Monitor, providing you with comprehensive logging and analytics capabilities.

To enable logging:

  1. Go to your firewall resource in the Azure portal.
  2. Navigate to "Diagnostics settings".
  3. Click on "Add diagnostic setting".
  4. Select the logs and metrics you want to collect.
  5. Choose the destination (Log Analytics, Event Hub, or Storage Account).
  6. Click "Save".

You can view the logs in Azure Monitor to analyze traffic patterns and detect potential threats.

Conclusion

Azure Firewall is a powerful and flexible security service that helps protect your Azure resources. By understanding and configuring its features, you can ensure robust network security in your Azure environment.